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Art Day in Quarantine

So…. how is my quarantine ‘Art Day’ looking like?

Nothing very extravagant actually.
After yoga and breakfast, I clean my table, setup all the papers and paints and look for inspiration for the day, scrolling the photos I saved (I do that whenever I see something that might be a motive for painting one day).
And then, with a bit of luck, I can not stop painting until it is getting dark :-).

In between I have lunch, and 2 x temperature measurement, and on the days like today, another PCR test – the last one before I leave this hotel for another hotel for another 7 days here in Shanghai. Actually it will be 9 days as on July 1st the celebration for 100 years of Communist Party takes place in Beijing and restrictions in (street, air) traffic is expected!

I make photos of the day’s creations with my phone (when the outside light is still good enough to do so!) and upload them to the computer.
On the computer I make some adjustments (cropping only), export them (a bit smaller then original) to png (it looks like this is a good enough format for the purpose of presenting them on these pages- at least I think so)…
I saw, that some of the exports were done too small, so I adjusted the size to be a bit bigger today. I keep the quality relatively restrictive, not to use too much space on the server.

Afterwards the work in WordPress starts:

  • upload of the photos to the media library
  • for each photo, set the metadata
  • create one page per painting and save it
  • the new paintings are added to the art gallery page
  • write the post – like this one or something else to announce new paintings

In the Art Gallery you can find this ones added today:

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress
The Red One (3)

The Red One (3)

The Red One (2)

The Red One (2)

The Red One (1)

The Red One (1)

Blue and Violet

Blue and Violet

Blue and Green

Blue and Green

Corals

Corals

Blue with Dots

Blue with Dots

Yellow and Green

Yellow and Green

When all this is done on my www pages, then I typically make a post on FB and instagram… I am not using the tweeter or other social platforms… I guess I need to start using the WeChat now :-)!
I did one announcement on LinkedIn – but am not doing it regularly, as I do not think that is the appropriate media (probably one more when I will do the last post about the quarantine).

How do you like it so far?
You are welcome to rate/ leave some comment.
I am looking forward to it!

How do you like it:
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Art Gallery is set up :-)

Sunday was the day for research: how to create a nice looking art gallery.

Main criteria:

  • adding another template (look and feel of a web page):
    • to try how it works, if you have more than 1 template and
    • to have a different design – more artistic – for Art Gallery menu
  • rating option should be available (and working!)
  • nice looking gallery layout
    • below is one example, which I could not use for my Art Gallery menu, as the link functionality does not work – it only goes to a ‘picture only page’ and it’s predefined… I did not yet start to code (to adjust the templates), not is my intention to do so, unless really urgent. I rather paint 🙂
  • clicking on the picture in the gallery should allow you to jump on the page, where picture is presented. This page needs to be generated by me (so I determine, what you see and what not), with the possibility to rate the picture and leave a comment if you wish to do so.
  • I need to have a “painting page template” – as the structure for each painting page needs to be the same
  • and of course, all plugins need to be free of charge – at least for now. If I start selling my paintings like crazy, then I might buy some :)!

As a WordPress beginner, I needed quite some time to find all the plugins needed for all peaces to work together… a day+ of try & error experience! Quarantine time is the perfect opportunity for something like that!

What you see now on the Art Gallery menu is the result.

p.s. 3 new paintings are there:

Visual Portfolio, Posts & Image Gallery for WordPress
Spiral Green Nature

Spiral Green Nature

Home Garden

Home Garden

Fine Floating Fish Flock

Fine Floating Fish Flock

For now I am pleased with the result… if I will find something better, I will let you know :).
If you see something that does not work, and/or does not look good, please do let me know!

p.s. Rating on mobile phones seems to work in two steps, after clicking, a drop-down menu is opened, on other devices clicking on the stars should be working without any problem.

How do you like it:
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Art expressions

I will just say this here: did not do watercolours since 2008…. Some of my work from that period you can see here.

One more remark: I have no idea, how this rating stars will work… can you please rate at least some of the paintings, so that I can see if this “item” is useful at all? Thanks!!

Update June 20th

The rating as I added below, does not work like that.... I found some plugns for rating, but it works on post/page level only and would not meet the intention from below. 
I will check what I can do in the future - I plan to develop the gallery page and there I think the rating will be functioning just perfect as every painting will receive a dedicated page, so the functionality will be just the right one.

Below you’ll find the “quarantine production” so far 🙂

Gallery of paintings

Yellow Roses

First try with the masking fluid.

The result is not really to my liking….

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Blue is Blue

Wet in wet try – just an experiment – not really meant to be a picture 🙂

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Reflection

Another masking fluid experiment.

I would do more windows like on the right side also on the right – instead of 2 big-window buildings – I think it would be more balanced.

What is your opinion (pls add in the comment!)?

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Using the watercolour pencils for the first time – I must admit, I like the classical watercolours better.

I am still deciding which version is better – in tube or in a pan. Maybe the tube is simple to use, if you have larger surfaces to paint…

Bathing in the Sun

Interesting result. Next time I want to do the same motive in a more “free”= abstract approach. (Though I know, I am not yet that loose to be able to do abstract!)

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Path to the unknown

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

Rice fields

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

A pink couple

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

After the storm

your rating:

Rating: 1 out of 5.

How do you like it: